Owen’s Translation.
Strabo (iii. 144. p. 385. ed. Sieb.) gives the following account of the wool of Turdetania.
Πολλὴ δὲ καὶ ἐσθὴς πρότερον ἤρχετο· νῦν δὲ καὶ ἔρια μᾶλλον τῶν Κυραξῶν, καὶ ὑπερβολή τις ἐστὶ τοῦ κάλλους· ταλαντιαίους γοῦν ὠνοῦνται τοὺς κριοὺς εἰς τὰς ὀχείας, ὑπερβολὴ δὲ καὶ τῶν λεπτῶν ὑφασμάτων, ἅπερ οἱ Σαλτιῆται κατασκευάζουσιν.
“Much cloth used formerly to come from this country. Now also fleeces come from it more than from the Coraxi; and they are exceedingly beautiful, so that rams for breeding are sold for a talent each. Also the fine webs are very famous, which are made by the Saltiatæ.”—Yates’s Translation.
The reader will please to remark, that this is the passage of Strabo, formerly referred to as containing evidence respecting the Coraxi.
Martial, a Spaniard by birth, frequently alludes to the sheep of Bætica and especially to the various natural colors of their wool, which were so much admired, that it was manufactured without dyeing. Two of his epigrams (iv. 28. and viii. 28.) have been already quoted, as they refer also to the sheep of Tarentum: to these the seven following may be added.
In the Tartessian lands a house appears,
Where Cordova o’er placid Bætis rears
Her wealthy domes; and where the fleeces show
Metallic tints, like living gold that glow.